by Wells, Juno
That small shell, no larger than his fist, represented the continuation of his line as well as the risk of potentially wiping it out of existence, if Queen Abraka discovered their deceit. Still, what male would turn down an opportunity to pass down his genes? His little one was certainly worth everything his family was risking to ensure its survival.
Larok headed back to his tiny bridge and dropped into his seat at the navigational panel. His fingers flew over the controls, as he carefully set the coordinates to move the shuttle to its next assigned position. Then he composed his daily report. He sent it along with a hope that all was well at home. Microns ticked slowly by, as he waited for his sire to acknowledge receiving his entry.
Moments later his communications relay crackled to life. “Greetings from the mothership of Queen Abraka, my hatchling. Your status report has been received, reviewed, and entered into the database.”
Larok automatically responded with the standard return greeting. “Long live our illustrious queen.”
“I’m afraid her time is near. Prepare yourself to be called home at a moment’s notice.”
“May I inquire after you and my fellow hatchmates?”
“I am well, as are your hatchmates. You have no cause to worry for any of your blood. I will speak with you soon.”
Larok let out a sigh of relief when the com channel closed. His sire had communicated his little one and the rest of his small family was well. Glancing at his timepiece, he calculated that he had about three hundred microns to rest before it was time to repeat the process again. He set the automatic pilot and the proximity sensors, which would sound an alert if there was movement in his sensor range. He stood and stretched his tired muscles and headed to his quarters.
After peeling off his clothing, Larok stepped beneath the cleanser and allowed the fine warm mist to envelop his body. Pressing his hands against the wall, he thought about how lucky he was. Occasionally accidents happened. When all the planets were in proper alignment, and the goddess smiled on a male, magical things were possible. One such miracle happened when he’d been assigned to guard duty in the queen’s chambers during a breeding cycle. He’d been stationed beneath one of the intake air vents. The unit had kicked on every nine microns for a full cycle, sucking air into the large vent as another unit across the room pumped fresh air. Though he hadn’t realized it at the time, the room must have been thick with her pheromones, which washed over him with each intake of air. It was the only thing that could have ignited parthenogenesis.
Running his hand over his naked body, he slopped cleansing foam onto his skin. As far as males go, he was healthy, fit and in the prime of his life. His wings were as strong as any in the fleet. In addition, his line was gifted with other attributes he hoped had been passed on to his offspring.
It was a dangerous time to have a secret hatchling. Larok turned over the elder drone’s new plan in his mind. Plotting against a queen was high treason. If their warriors had ever been that cunning, he could not remember reading about it in the ship’s historical archives.
His mind swirled with all the new ideas he’d heard the elder drones talking about. They told tales of how several ships had escaped through a portal into another sector of space. It is said their brethren are free from the rule of vicious queens there. True freedom! The very idea was so different from anything he’d known that Larok could barely draw a picture of it in his mind’s eye.
The alien queens on the other side of the rift were said to have beautiful smooth skin, soft strands growing from their head, and eyes that were all the colors of a nebula. The hardest part for him to fathom was the report that the alien queens befriended each other, had no desire for power, and rarely fought amongst themselves. Somehow the thought of touching a soft queen was alluring, but he’d learned long ago that queens were rarely what they seemed. Even if the wild tales were true, there was little chance of Larok’s touching one of them. Since there were true breeders aplenty among his crew, no queen would think of a simple warrior with limited breeding ability as a consort.
Yet, it might still be possible for him to at least look upon an alien queen. The elders were busy concocting some plan to create an artificial rift when their queen died and escape to freedom, rather than yielding to a new Draconian Queen. It sounded dangerous and worried him greatly, for he now had a youngling to consider. Anxiety twisted in his gut. For his part, Larok preferred the danger of a queen he knew how to circumvent as opposed to one he knew nothing about.
No sooner had he gotten out of the cleansing unit than his proximity sensor shrieked. Shrugging into a fresh uniform and boots, he rushed back to his station to investigate. A subspace rupture filled his screen. He’d seen that happen from time to time. Since they usually dissipated before becoming large enough to cause an actual rift or pose a threat, he switched on the external image recorders and captured footage of the event. His queen would no doubt wish to see this with her own eyes.
As the microns clicked by, he realized the anomaly was not diminishing. Instead, it was growing in size and intensity. The thought occurred to him that he could fly right through the rupture and perhaps end up in the space his elders had spoken of. He kicked that idea out of his mind almost before the thought was fully formed in his head—Larok knew he would never leave his little one behind.
A brilliant white cavern opened as he watched, awestruck by its beauty, but also afraid, for it looked much like the mouth of a large celestial worm. A ship came flying through the vast round hole. The vessel was old and probably didn’t have the necessary shielding to protect it from the gravitational pull of the anomaly. That must be why it was listing to one side and flying erratically. Unsure who it was or what they wanted, one thing was certain. They should not be encroaching upon his queen’s territory. Arming his weapon, he decided to give the strange ship just enough of a jolt to send it back into its own sector of space.
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